Texas Aquatic Science Chapter 6 Video Introduction

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Ecosystems are complex interdependent webs of relationships between living and nonliving things. Texas has six kinds of aquatic ecosystem supporting significant biodiversity. An ecosystem is a complex web of relationships between living and non-living things. The study of ecosystems is known as ecology. The biotic parts of an ecosystem are the living components, such as the communities of plants and animals, including humans. The abiotic parts are the nonliving components, including sunlight, air, water, temperature, and minerals. Each part of an ecosystem is connected to and depends on all the others parts. It takes all the parts interacting in a balanced fashion to make the system work. Changes to any part of an ecosystem can affect many others, which in turn may affect many more. A healthy, balanced ecosystem provides for the needs of the communities of life that are part of the ecosystem.– Texas Aquatic Science Chapter 6: Texas Aquatic Ecosystems

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Texas Aquatic Science is a cooperative education project sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife, The Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. Additional project support came from the Ewing Halsell Foundation and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Sport Fish Restoration Program. Rudolph Rosen, Ph.D. wrote and edited the Texas Aquatic Science textbook. Videos were produced by Randall Maxwell. Sandra Johnson, Ph.D. served as educational consultant and authored the accompanying Teacher’s Guide.